Has social media influenced how we view and engage with activism?
Activism is a key outlet that is commonly produced from different social media platforms and the issues of the world they elevate and raise to the eye of its users. Activism is known to be the process of campaigning in public, or working for an organisation in order to bring about political or social change, however it takes a multitude of forms when conducted, including collective action and social movements. There are a multitude of ways that activism is demonstrated through social media platforms as activists have the ability to use their platforms to inform users and advocate for their cause to a wide audience, compared to if they did it through word of mouth.
A social movement is made up of many components to enforce the ideology, focusing on having a network of interactions, pinpointing shared beliefs, the usage of collective action, and ensuring action is taken outside of institutions (Diani, 1992). Strategically, social media platforms are one of if not the best forms of outlets to share your motive and what you stand for in regards to activism, and i can confidently say most users’ first thoughts are to utilise these platforms to create a larger sense of support and it proves to be useful as long as the four main stages are followed to initiate and create your social movement. It starts with the emergence of the social movement, where the key is to make users aware of an upcoming issue they want to change, which is typically performed by one individual originally. Then, the coalescence starts to bring people together and make plans on what actions to take with the movement, defining the problem further and if any opponents are emerging. The movement then becomes bureaucratised as it becomes almost fully organised, with leaders beginning to emerge and with individuals taking on roles they expertise in. Through this process, it is key that the movement discovers how to sustain itself to continue moving forward. The final stage focuses on whether the movement is successful or fails to progress. This is when we typically see whether the movement has achieved its goal, or ultimately failed to make enough progress to continue efficiently. There are many reasons for a possible decline, as it mainly falls upon establishment and organisational failure, leading to a fall in the movement that might limit it from reaching its ultimate goal.
Digital media can help prevent this and can be used effectively by activists as it allows for individuals to advocate and develop political commentaries that express support for the ideologies they stand with. Furthermore, it allows for the recruitment of individuals who may share a similar interest to ensure the movement grows and becomes more of a phenomena in society, leading to better levels of organisation and co-ordination as the roles can then be divided through communication with each other using these platforms they choose to utilise to their best ability. Some activists even choose to take direct action through digital spaces to emphasise their points further and to increase the research being put into the movement (Ozkula, 2021). This further demonstrates how digital media offers powerful organisational resources that enable large-scale action without the high levels of formal organisation in the past (Bennett and Segerberg, 2012) as we can successfully communicate through simple posts or text messages to coordinate effectively to provide a more influential outcome.
A key example of a social movement that found its grounding through social media is the well-known #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, abuse and assault which aimed to empower survivors and bring attention the widespread issues brought forth from these heinous actions. The movement became worldwide through the post of Alyssa Milano, a famous actress, in 2017 when she used the hashtag to give her recount regarding the revelations of sexual misconduct again Harvey Weinstein, a famous Hollywood producer. The movement had many successes through raising awareness towards the issues it hoped to tackle, and developing an important global conversation that encouraged other survivors to come forward and share their experience, forming a sense of solidarity. Furthermore, it helped the implementation of stricter workplace harassment policies, legislative forms in countries and increased accountability, showing success in sharing the motive of this social movement.
Digital media campaigns have continuously demonstrated success, especially for short term campaigns to grow support and encouragement to stand with the key issues being tackled by each movement. Furthermore, based on the platformisation of these spaces and the evolution of their affordances, we observe a growth in individual, strategic and low‑commitment participation (Esparcia et al, 2023) which encourages more people to join due to the low entry requirements to join in that are provided by these platforms, as it focuses solely on engaging users to stand up for their opinion, rather than becoming an elaborate maze of trying to figure out how to help spread the word regarding what you do stand for. However, it is important to ultimately note that platforms elevating these issues does not immediately indicate change, as individuals choose how to engage with the posts, which can lead to low risk, easier forms of action being taken, therefore making it important for those interested in using these platforms for activism to ensure that the way they use it is efficient and will provide the best possible outcome for the movement they choose to commit to through ensuring full engagement and encouragement to motivate the user to take more action that what they may from a post that might have lower chances of engagement.
Food for thought: Here is one of my favourite TED Talks that discuss the importance of the role of Social Media in regards to activism. Check it out for more information here:
Reference List.
- Bennett, W.L. and Segerberg, A., 2012. The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), pp.739–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.670661
- Diani, M., 1992. The concept of social movement. The Sociological Review, 40(1), pp.1–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1992.tb02943.x
- Esparcia, A.C., Caro Castaño, L. and Almansa-Martínez, A., 2023. Evolution of digital activism on social media: opportunities and challenges. Media and Communication, 11(2), pp.150–161. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6534
- Ozkula, S.M., 2021. Digital activism: A new field of research and action. In: M. Barisione and A. Michailidou, eds. Social Media and European Politics: Rethinking Power and Legitimacy in the Digital Era. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 213–234
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